Perhaps for the first time
since the Second World War, there is a real chance that Liberal Democracy could
provide the basis for local government policy at York’s Guildhall for the next
few years.
We
have increased our number of Councillors over the last decade from 18 to 24 and
stand now on a par with our Labour opponents.
The
present Council leadership has lost its way. It has failed on at least 4 out of
the 5 “pledges” that it made to residents in 1999.
They
now offer nothing new.
Residents
do not want to read about the latest internal party bust up nor are they
impressed by superficial spin publicity. Too often, in the last couple of
years, the York Council has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
A
Liberal Democrat Council will be judged by what it achieves not what it claims.
We have carefully analysed the views contained in over 11,000 survey forms that
you have returned to us over the last 10 months. We are clear about your
priorities. They will be also be our priorities.
I
have, therefore, launched a new initiative which we are calling York Pride.
We
want to give the highest priority to the quality of the local environment in
which we all live and work.
This
means being intolerant of poor cleansing standards, dangerous roads, graffiti,
anti social behaviour and the like.
We
see local residents taking ownership of their neighbourhoods and,
through a combination of self help and Council support, raising standards to a
level that all can all be proud of again.
The
elections on 1st May 2003 provide the residents of
our great City with an historic opportunity.
We do
not promise revolution. Our City has been most successful over the years when
it has built gradually on its strengths and we would expect to maintain that
philosophy.
There
are no reckless promises in this document. Our proposals were well researched
and were thoroughly costed during the Council’s budget debate in January.
What
you see is what you will get.
We do
promise renewed respect for the people of York and the City’s environment.
It is time for a change.
Steve Galloway
This manifesto sets out
the Liberal Democrat approach to local government and community representation
in York. It details some of the
initiatives that Liberal Democrats will be putting into action, based on our
principles of freedom, environmental sustainability, social justice and
honesty. These policies aim both to improve people's lives and to enable people
to take control of their lives themselves.
Liberal Democrats have
an outstanding record of growth in local government over the past two decades.
In York we now have 24 Councillors
– the same as Labour. We are the only party to have made gains in the City over
the last 8 years.
This booklet sets out
broad principles underpinned by detailed policy suggestions for local action.
Of course, resource implications and continuing limits on council spending mean
many policies here cannot all be introduced at once, but in line with local
priorities and how far different councils already address the same issues.
Many people today see
politics as irrelevant, and local government as more irrelevant than most. With
turnout even for the 2001 General Election falling below 60%, with a turnout of
50% seen as near-miraculous in most local elections and a normal turnout of
under 30% in some wards, all politicians have cause for concern. But now is no
time to give up. Despite the steady erosion of its ability to make its own
decisions, local government still matters.
If someone asks you why
they should bother to vote at the next local election, we know how to answer.
The election affects them if they care about education for
themselves or their children, if they use a library or want their bins
emptied, if they use any transport, are worried about crime, if they're a
pensioner or care about their future. As Liberal Democrats, how we handle power
and influence in local government is vital to the people we involve and
represent, and has a direct effect on their lives.
Today, the need for local
control over local services and local decision-making is greater than ever. For
many communities, particularly the run down estates and the isolated villages
in the countryside, services that were once seen as local are now often
contracted out to large organisations who employ a
pool of staff from outside the area to come in and do the work. Communities
that once displayed self-sufficiency are now increasingly dependent on outside
support. As poverty, poor housing and unemployment increases so do the number
of Government programmes, initiatives and action zones. Nearly all have failed
because they are almost always top-down solutions provided by people with
little or no local knowledge. Worse still, they often seep from the community
what skills and talents it has as the community becomes over-reliant on others.
Local authorities have a
key role to play in reversing this trend; in providing community leadership and
giving local communities a voice. They should aim to bring various public
agencies together with the aim of re-connecting them with the public and giving
a sense of influence and control to local people.
Of course, local
authorities are central to the provision of education and to making local
environments good places in which to live. Even more importantly, local government
is closer to the people it serves.
The Liberal Democrats
believe that the best way to guarantee rights and opportunities for individuals
to run their own lives and influence their surroundings is through power at
local level. People should be able to feel proud of and participate in their
local communities - the schools in which their
children are taught, the streets they travel every day, the local environment
in which they live. Local councils have a vital role to play in fostering revitalised communities, dispersing power so that decisions
are taken at the lowest practical level, not dictated from above. For many
actions, the lowest appropriate level to make choices must remain the
individual. Where power must be exercised by communities, individuals must be
able to make a full contribution to the decisions which affect their lives.
Local government is important because it is the level of government at which
the most individuals can make the most impact.
In Government, Labour has
failed local people and local services.
They've spent even less of
our national wealth than the Tories did on schools, hospitals, pensions and
transport.
They've let our children
down. There are the highest secondary school class sizes for 20 years, and
Labour's tuition fees put people off university.
They've let our pensioners
down. The pension rise was miserable, and many older people lose their homes to
pay for long-term care.
Police numbers continued to
fall - down by over 2,000 since Labour came to power. It will be years before
any new recruits are fully effective yet the Police precept has more than
doubled in the last 2 years.
They've ignored the urgent need
for action on the environment, and public transport by rail in particular has
been an unmitigated failure.
They've chipped away at
more of our civil liberties than even the Tories dared, from the right to jury
trial onward. They just can't resist telling everyone what to do.
Labour's failure and the
attitudes behind it are at their plainest in local government. Where the
problem is underspending, they merely introduce
hit-squads, central Inspectorates and privatisations. Where the problem is a
lack of openness and involvement, they prescribe from Whitehall
what every local council must do. Labour regards local government as little
more than an administrative arm of central government, and are
imposing centralised new structures that will make accountability even less
likely - except to Whitehall.
Despite limited devolution to Scotland,
Wales and London,
Labour remains highly sceptical about any new freedoms for local government.
Labour believe in devolution as a mechanical process,
not in letting power go. They still want to hold control, while Liberal
Democrats want to involve people in taking power over their own lives.
Executive Cabinets and mayors are Labour gimmicks to centralise local power
which can do nothing to turn around the feeling that many councils are
inaccessible. For Liberal Democrats, independent local government is as much a
democratic right as an independent Parliament.
Liberal Democrats believe in the importance of local
government in principle, and we
recognise its benefits in practice. We reject the view that Whitehall knows
best and that the best way to deliver efficiency is to create large, standard
units - often unaccountable, inaccessible Quangos. The evidence of the last two
decades is that Whitehall is both
out of touch and incompetent, as central bureaucracy takes local decisions and
messes them up. Local government now has control of just a tiny fraction of its
own finances, with most of its cash doled out from above and ordered into
particular areas by central government diktat. Powers formerly exercised by accountable local government were not taken from monoliths
to give to local people, but to undemocratic Quangos and direct rule from
